The India Emerging Players team won the four-nation tournament in Australia by beating their South African counterparts in the finals by 17 runs after their opposition had won all their games in the league stage. The four-nation tournament consisted of Australia and New Zealand apart from the two finalists.
South Africa won the toss and elected to field first, and were immediately rewarded two wickets in the very first over; Lonwabo Tsotsobe picking up Ajinkya Rahane and Murali Vijay off successive deliveries. Captain S.Badrinath, along with Virat Kohli did manage to get the side out of trouble with a 29-ball 20, as did Abhishek Nayar’s 33-ball 23, but then Manoj Tiwary fell for a duck and Indians were reduced to 109/5.
Kohli then took charge with his partner, W.Saha and the duo added 78 runs for the sixth wicket. Kohli brought up his century and scored 104 in 102 deliveries before being dismissed, but an excellent by Saha and Amit Mishra saw India score 70 runs in the last eight overs, despite being seven wickets down, and India ended with 283/9 in the fifty overs.
The South Africans were off to a flier with 50 coming in only the sixth over and the 100 in the 11th. However, in the process, the Proteas also lost three wickets, and while Henry Davids did score an 82 at the top of order, and Heino Kuhn hit a 38 down the order, the Proteas lost far too many wickets. In fact, at one stage, they needed only 35 runs to win with more than ten overs to plare and four wickets standing; but Sudeep Tyagi got two in two and then Mishra got another to win India the game by 17 runs.
Australia finished third in the competition by beating New Zealand in the play-offs.